Word of the Day: Thread
thread / THred
noun
1. a long, thin strand of textile fibers or filaments
A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.
George Herbert, 1593-1633
2. any type of long twisted fiber used for stitching
We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.
Maya Angelou, 1928-2014
3. something compared or similar to a strand of textile fibers
Among the millions of nerve cells that clothe parts of the brain there runs a thread. It is the thread of time, the thread that has run through each succeeding wakeful hour of the individual.
Wilder Penfield, 1891-1976
4. a long, thin strand of natural filaments, as in a spider web
In the beginning, sin is like a thread of a spider’s web.
Rabbi Akiva, 50-135 AD
5. an idea, theme, etc., that runs through something, connecting different parts
I write short, my words tight to the thread of the narrative.
Carmen Laforet, 1921-2004
6. in online culture, a series of posts and responses in various internet media which all pertain to the same topic
Look at 4chan culture, which is the ultimate version of shedding your IRL [in real life] identity – you don’t even keep a consistent screen name from thread to thread.
Arthur Chu, 1984-
7. something that provides very little or tenuous support
My life was on the line here and my career and everything I worked for, it was hanging by a thread.
Rafael Palmeiro, 1964-
verb
1. to pass the end of a strand of fibers through the eye of a needle
The story in my family goes that at the age of 3 I could thread needles faster than anybody.
Judith Leiber, 1921-2018
2. to pass or make one’s way through an area, crowd, etc.
Two children, all alone and no one by,
Holding their tattered frocks, thro’an airy maze
Of motion lightly threaded with nimble feet[.]
from ‘The Little Dancers’ by Laurence Binyon, 1869-1943
3. to string small objects together, as in beadwork
How guilt refined the methods of self-torture, threading the beads of detail into an eternal loop, a rosary to be fingered for a lifetime.
from ‘Atonement’ by Ian McEwan, 1948-
4. to remove facial hair by looping string around the individual hair and pulling it out
It’s believed that threading originated somewhere along the popular trading routes of the East as many as 6,000 years ago.
https://www.epicareuk.com/pages/threading-facial-hair
5. to be interspersed throughout
You’ve learned that every good lie is threaded with truth and every accepted truth leaks lies.
Dennis Lehane, 1965-